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Batman: Bad Blood
Blaine: These animated features DC makes are fun to watch.
Plot (Spoiler Alert)Batwoman intercepts a group of criminals and then Batman shows up to help her out. He saves her from falling to her death, then the building blows up and Batwoman believes Batman was killed. Two weeks have passed and Batman is missing and presumed dead by Batwoman. Alfred makes the Wayne board believe Bruce Wayne is out on business. Meanwhile in the Himalayas, Damian Wayne sees online news reports about Batman’s disappearance so he returns to Gotham. Alfred calls in Dick Grayson/Nightwing and informs him about Bruce’s disappearance. Dick looks at one of Bruce’s old Batsuits and puts it on to show the people of Gotham that Batman is still here. Dick, dressed as Batman, takes down Black Mask and his men. Damian shows up dressed as Robin to help and he is not fooled by Dick’s performance as Batman. Shortly after that Batwoman meets up with them and she too knows that it is Nightwing under Batman’s mask. She informs him and Robin that she was the last one to see Batman. Batwoman shows them the place she was at the last time Batman was seen. She is still trying to find out who the main boss was and what their plan is. She says she’ll inform them when she finds out. Bruce has a file on who Batwoman really is. Her name is Katherine Kane, someone Dick Grayson is familiar with. Katherine’s mom and twin sister were killed when she was twelve after being abducted and held for ransom. She survived when her father, Colonel Kane, came to the rescue. She enrolled at West Point, but was expelled. Two years later she became Batwoman. Batwoman finds out the criminal leader is someone who goes by the name of The Heretic. Lucious Fox’s son, Luke Fox, is back in town after being in the war. Lucious feels now that his son is back he should work at Wayne Enterprise, but Luke wants to go back into action. Over the years Luke has visited Wayne Enterprise, he has noticed that there is a connection between the company and Batman. The Heretic shows up and attacks Wayne Enterprise along with his henchmen. Lucious signals for help from Batman. The Heretic forces Lucious to open the vault by threatening to kill his son. Lucious opens the vault and then after The Heretic injures Fox. Dick and Damian show up in the Batmobile and fight off The Heretic and his men. The Heretic escapes and Fox is rushed to the hospital. Luke wants to help Dick find and defeat The Heretic, but Dick feels it’s best that he stays out of it. Kate Kane is having a drink with a nice lady until she gets a text message to meet on a rooftop. Nightwing is still dressed as Batman and he reveals to Batwoman that he is Dick Grayson. She is impressed to see it’s an old friend. Kate tells Dick that after she was kicked out of the military, she became a wreck. Then Batman saved her one night when she didn’t want to be rescued. But seeing him influenced her to take the law into her hands. The Heretic shows up at the Batcave, knocks out Damian and takes him with him. Luke Fox opens the vault and puts on a advanced combat exosuit designed by his dad. He calls himself Batwing. Alfred informs Dick that Damian has been taken. Damian wakes up and sees his father, Bruce, held prisoner. The Heretic reveals himself to be Damian’s clone only older. He brought Damian to his headquarters so he could have his memories. Talia al Ghul enters the room and it is revealed that he is the person behind all this. Talia isn’t happy she brought Damian to the headquarters. All the clone wants is to love her like a mother and begs her for it. He is no use to her so he puts a bullet in his head. Dick Grayson Batman and Batwoman track Damian down from his suit and leads them to a motherhouse for sisters. Once they get there, nuns surround Dick and Batwoman with holding swords and guns. They fight them. Luke Fox shows up calling himself Batwing. Batwing fights the bad guys in the sky. Talia and the others escape. Damian frees himself from the straight jacket and then frees his father. Damian guides Bruce out of the building. Dick shows up and helps them escape. Batwing and Batwoman defeat the henchmen and the mission of finding Bruce Wayne has become successful, but Talia and the others escaped. Batwing introduces himself to Bruce and informs him he is proud to be a part of the team. Bruce is not accepting of new members to the Bat family and doesn’t want their help. A week later Bruce is doing better, but he acts like nothing happened. Bruce prepares himself for a summit happening in Gotham. Katherine’s father tries to kill her and she is forced to fight him. She knows somethings not right. Bruce Wayne gives a speech to world leaders about Wayne Tech’s latest communication device while the building floats in the air like a ship. Suddenly something shows up on the screen and guests are being brain washed by the Mad Hatter, who is working for Talia. Bruce is still under mind control. Batwoman informs Nightwing, Robin and Batwing that her father was being programmed and she believes that Bruce is under their control. It makes sense to Nightwing. It’s up to them to stop Talia. Batwing hacks through the security on the building and Nightwing, Robin, Batwoman and Batwing enter. Talia gives them an option to join them or die. She has Batman fight them. Alfred is the only one who is not under control. He finds the Mad Hatter, destroys the machine and accidentally kills the Mad Hatter. Batwing fights Firefly, Batwoman fights Talia, Robin fights one of the big henchmen, Tusk and Nightwing fights Batman. Robin and Batwing defeat their contenders, the ship crashes into another building on the side and Batwoman falls, but she pulls herself back into the ship. Batman has beaten Nightwing. Talia throws him a gun and tells him to finish him. Nightwing tries to remind Batman he is not a killer. Batman fights it. Bat woman shows up and punches Talia in the face for brainwashing her father. Talia escapes, but her escape is foiled by one of the henchman taking revenge for Heretic’s death. The ship she is on crashes and blows up. Shortly after that Bruce comforts Damian over Talia’s supposed death. Even though she was evil still she was Damian’s mother. The Bat-Signal shines in the sky in Gotham City and Nightwing, Batwoman and Batwing gather to meet up with Batman and Robin on the police station roof top. Penguin is on the run after robbing a bank and Batman and his team pursue him. 
Blaine: I love this “Batman” feature the most by far compared to “Son of Batman” and “Batman vs Robin”. Director, Jay Olivia described “Batman: Bad Blood” is more of a Nightwing film. Batman isn’t the hero of this movie, he is the one who is in trouble and needs to be rescued. And even after being rescued he is still the one in danger because his mind is under the control of the Mad Hatter who is working for Talia al Ghul. When Dick Grayson was younger he looked up to Bruce, but as he grew up he was growing apart from him because he realized he wanted to go on his own path and not someone elses and he didn't want to be the sidekick forever, so he retired from being Robin. But it’s hard for him to walk away from crime fighting after doing it his whole life so he became Nightwing. Luke Fox is the son of Lucious Fox, the man behind Batman’s gadgets and vehicles. Luke has been in the army and fought in Afghanistan and has been described as someone as who wants to get in on action. Because he has fought in the army, he has seen a lot in battle that would make it tough for him to forget about it. After visiting Wayne Enterprise to see his dad over the years he has figured that there is a connection between the company and Batman. Luke feels being a teammate of Batman’s would help him focus on something new. Lucious is lucky enough to have his son back alive after fighting in the army that he doesn’t want his son to be in another war. Lucious has seen a lot of things happen in Gotham and knows how dangerous it can be with the League of Assassins, the Joker and the death of a Robin. When the Heretic injures his father, Luke then takes it as a personal manner. He finds the people who are responsible and helps Nightwing and Batwoman stop them from whatever it is they plan to do. The story of Katherine begins when she was twelve. She witnessed her mom and her twin sister being murdered while they where held for ransom. Her father, Colonel Kane was able to rescue Katherine before she was killed. When she got older, she enrolled in the military, but was kicked out and after became a bit of a wreck. Katherine got in some trouble with outside thugs, but Batman was there to rescue her. It wasn't till then that she wanted to defend herself instead of someone else to be there to save her including Batman. Batwoman was introduced to comic book fans before Batgirl and she was created to be a love interest of Batman’s in order for Catwoman to not be a major love interest of his back in the earlier days. Catwoman is a criminal and the comic book writers wanted to keep Batman as the hero who fights for the law except for Catwoman and letting her get away with it. They didn’t want to give a message like that out to fans. So they created Batwoman, but they didn’t make Batman and Batwoman too close to. As time was changing for comic books Batwoman got a new look, a new personality and got herself a background story. Plus she’s no longer a love interest to Batman because she prefers the company of women. In “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”, Batman wore two different Bat suits. When he returned as Batman, the suit was blue and grey. The parts that were blue were the cape, the mask, the gloves, the boots and the underwear. And the symbol inside a yellow circle on the chest aria. I like to think that is the first ever suit he wore and it’s similar to the suit Dick Grayson wears in “Batman: Bad Blood” when he’s pretending to be Batman to show people he’s still out there. Bruce Wayne doesn’t have an inspiration that caused him to become Batman because he was created through a painful memory and the bats became a symbol for him. Batman has inspired others like Dick Grayson, Kate Kane, Luke Fox and Barbara Gordon. Talia al Ghul has shown Damian that she cares more about her mission even if she has to kill her own son and Damian pretty much doesn’t have to choose between his mother and father any more. I thought Bruce would have been more accepting that new members have been added to the team at first and I can’t tell if the mind control is the cause of it or not. But what matters is that he accepts it in the end. The thing I love the most is seeing the Bat family grow and working together. At the end it shows Batgirl and I can’t wait to see how this continues. My rating on “Batman: Bad Blood” is five out of five stars. “Batman: Bad Blood” premiere in Beverly Hills 
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